


All I Need

by ohmymcgrath



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Comfort, F/F, SuperCorp, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-24
Updated: 2017-05-24
Packaged: 2018-11-04 09:58:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10988571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ohmymcgrath/pseuds/ohmymcgrath
Summary: Sometimes, Lena has nightmares. And sometimes, she calls Kara to help her through them.





	All I Need

Kara wasn't sure what woke her, only that she shot up in bed with sweat beading her brow and her heart thundering in her chest. A quick glance at her alarm clock showed the numbers '2:04' in bright red, and she had barely been out for a few hours but somehow she knew something was wrong.

She took a deep breath to steady her breathing and perked her ears, her superhearing straining to hear if there was any danger nearby. Remarkably, the city felt quiet, calm, and it only made Kara frown. Because her stomach still felt twisted and a heartbeat was still stuttering in the back of her mind. 

_But whose?_

She swung her legs out of bed and raced to her window, pressing her palms against the cool glass as she bowed her head. Her senses strained, searching, searching, trying to find the source of the fear curling in her heart.

She found Alex, but her sister's small apartment was still and she could hear her steady breathing from where she was curled up in her bed. The knowledge gave Kara some relief, but the ominous feeling was still there, still hovering over her like a cloud that Kara couldn't shake.

Her superhearing and sight weren't quite capable of the limits she was pushing them to, but Alex was different, as much a part of her heart as she was, almost always a presence in the periphery of her thoughts. And there was only one other person who shared that space.

She left her bedroom, her bare feet padding softly across her apartment until she reached the balcony. From there, she willed her senses to find her. 

_Lena_.

She couldn't see her from this distance, the CEO's penthouse too far even from her view, but she could still feel her. Her senses could still find Lena's warmth, could almost smell the faint trace of her perfume. And they could pick up her familiar but erratic heartbeat and her small, muffled cries.

Kara was dressing in less time than it took her to blink, swirling around her apartment as she threw on a pair of clothes before pausing with her hand hovering over her suit.

Something was wrong, but she couldn't tell what and, what was worse, she wasn't supposed to know. Should she show up as Supergirl and pretend she was just checking up on her? Or should she call her as Kara? Either way, it was two in the morning, certainly Lena would find it suspicious if she-

Her train of thought was interrupted by the familiar jingle of her cell phone, and she rushed to retrieve it from her nightstand when she saw Lena's name light up the screen, grateful that the other woman had decided for her.

"Lena? Are you okay?" she was asking as soon as she answered the call.

"K-Kara?" came Lena's small voice, cracking over the two syllables.

She sounded hesitant, frightened in a way Kara had never heard before and the surge of protectiveness that Kara felt clear down to her toes took her breath away.

"What's wrong?"

Lena sniffed. "Nothing, really. I'm so sorry for calling so late, it's just... Oh God, this sounds ridiculous, but I had a bad dream and... Are you busy?"

Kara let her breath out in a rush that almost froze her toes. Lena was safe.

"I'm never too busy for you," she promised. "Want me to come over?"

"Oh, no, I wouldn't want to force you out of bed-" Lena started to protest before she went quiet at the sound of Kara's door closing. "Kara?"

"I'll be there before you know it," Kara assured her with a smile.

'Before you know it' turned out to be precisely four and a half minutes, and it was only that long because Kara had forced herself to dawdle in the hall of Lena's building so she wouldn't look _too_  suspicious. Because she hadn't been patient enough to drive. Not when Lena was upset and frightened and she could still hear the other woman's cries in her head.

Alex would kill her if she knew Kara had flown without her suit, but she'd taken precautions. And okay, that merely meant that she tried to take as many back alleys as she could find, but Lena was worth the risk. She always was.

At four minutes and twenty-nine seconds, Kara couldn't wait any longer. She knocked gently on Lena's door and shifted on her feet as she listened to the soft footsteps on the other side.

Lena's fingers curled around the door as she opened it, and Rao but she looked so small and soft in her pajamas, her bare toes curling on the hardwood floor.

"Hey," she said softly, tilting her head as she tried to give her friend a reassuring smile.

"That was fast," Lena said with a small one of her own as she held the door open and Kara stepped inside.

Kara tried to chuckle offhandedly. "I was already up, actually. I was uh... There's a Chinese restaurant that's open 24 hours down the street."

Which was true. She'd even stopped there for an eggroll (or six) when she realized that she couldn't show up at Lena's apartment forty-five seconds after getting off the phone with her.

Lena's laugh made telling her that worth it.

"I... Um... Thank you, Kara," Lena said nervously, her fingers twisting together in front of her as she avoided Kara's eyes. "For coming."

Kara softened, stepping toward her friend and daring to wrap her arms around her shoulders because it looked like Lena desperately needed it. And she was right. The smaller woman let out a choked cry before she wrapped her arms tightly around Kara's back and Kara tried not to shiver as Lena buried her face in her neck.

She brought the back of her hand to cradle her there instead, whispering soothing nonsense into her dark hair.

She was tempted to pick her up, to carry her to the couch and hold her in her arms and make her feel as safe as she could. Rao but Lena deserved to feel safe. She had been through so much, especially with everything happening between her and her mother lately, and yet she was so strong, so brave and good through it all. Kara was forever in awe of Lena Luthor, even now when her walls had seemed to fracture.

"Come on, let's sit down," she suggested lightly, holding Lena until the other woman nodded and sat back on her heels, ducking her head to wipe her cheeks.

She steered her towards the couch and ushered her down against the cushions, reaching for a blanket that was folded over a nearby chair and opening it before she sat at Lena's side and draped it over them.

"Better?" she asked hopefully.

Lena managed a wet smile and Kara froze as she shifted so she could lay her head against Kara's shoulder. It reminded Kara of how she used to sit with Alex when she would have nightmares, and Alex would hold her and tell her that she was safe and that she would never let anything happen to her. She hoped she could be the same comfort to her friend; that Lena knew, as Kara did at Alex's side, just how much she was cared for. How much she was loved.

She smiled as she rested her cheek against Lena's hair, the smell of her shampoo filling Kara's senses as she tried to ignore the fluttering in her stomach. Now was not the time to let her feelings get the better of her. Lena needed her support. She didn't need to know that the steady beat of Lena's heart, calm now as she sat beside her, was like a partner to her own; that Kara would do anything in this world - or beyond - to keep that heart safe. That Lena's warmth and closeness made it hard to ignore the fact that Kara was head over heels in love with her and ever struggling to keep that confession from tumbling out of her mouth.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, determined to remain focused on the present and the slight tremble she could feel against her arm.

"It was about Lex," Lena whispered against her shoulder, so quietly that Kara might have missed it were it not for her superhearing.

Kara could only imagine the sort of horrors Lena's subconscious could come up with with regards to her brother and her heart clenched with a mixture of anger and sadness at the weight Lena had to carry with her as a result of her family's failures.

Almost without thought, her hand reached for Lena's beneath the blanket, wrapping around her fingers and squeezing them gently.

"You know we won't let him hurt you, right?" Kara asked earnestly, uncaring of who 'we' implied because neither Kara Danvers nor Supergirl would ever let any harm come to her.

Lena lifted her head and met Kara's gaze, something... soft in her green eyes. Something meaningful in the way she looked at her.

"It's not just me I'm worried about."

Oh. 

_Oh._

Before Kara could say anything, Lena went on. "I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to someone I... loved."

Lena held their gazes just a moment longer before she dropped hers to her lap, and Kara would have missed the tinge of pink coloring her cheeks were it not for the way that it was also coloring her neck as Lena looked down.

She gulped.

Did that mean...?

She lifted her free hand to Lena's chin, encouraging the other woman to meet her eyes. Lena's were questioning now, flitting back and forth between Kara's as she waited.

Kara smiled, hoping Lena understood when she said, "Neither would I."

The change that came over Lena's face was breathtaking. Kara watched every detail of it, committing to memory the way her eyes lightened and the crease between her eyebrows softened, the way her lips parted and one corner of her mouth lifted until her cheek dimpled.

Kara was the first to look away, but mostly just so she could tug Lena against her again, this time wrapping the other woman in her arms and daring to press a kiss to her temple.

Her voice light, she offered, "I could ask Supergirl to come and watch over you, if it would make you feel safer."

Lena pressed her nose into Kara's chest, her sigh making Kara's skin warm beneath her shirt. But she could hear the smile playing on Lena's lips as she brushed her thumb over the back of their intertwined hands and said, "You're all the hero I need, Kara."

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on twitter @ohmymcgrath :)


End file.
